PATRICIA and Dan Topping of Whitecroft have beeen hosts to an unusual guest for the past week – Hooter the tawny owl!

Hooted was found weak and hungry near some shed on a paddock where Patricia keeps horses.

"He didn't seem too good and so we took him home and gave him some food and a drink, and the nursing is working," said Patricia.

The pair took him to an owl sanctuary in Hempsted, Gloucester, yesterday and they now have the all-clear for nursing him for a week or more longer before returning him to the wild.

"The sanctuary has been in touch daily with advice, and I was very pleased when they said they thought we were looking after him properly and should continue to care for him."

Hooter eats three chicks a day bought from the pet shop – the Toppings think he had been unable to find food in the cold spell and had just become too weak to fly.

His plight led Dan Topping to write a poem about him - and here it is...

He was in the cow shed

sat on the floor

looking cold and lost

on a layer of straw.

So I took him home

where he got watered and fed

and put in a box

and he went to bed.

We phoned an owl sanctuary

to get some advice

we fed him steak and chicks

and of course lovely mice.

We called him Hooter

and we would love him to stay

but he is a wild bird

and will be released some day.

So when the time is right

and there's no more snow

we'll take him back down the farm

and let him go.

When Hooter is hooting and hunting

wild and free

I hope our paths will cross again

maybe one day – we'll see!